At least with flying, I don't have to worry that some hobo will steal my bags between "layovers" using the bus.

Nah, when flying it's the TSA that pilfers your stuff. At Newark they had a theft ring going for years, the victims were elderly Indians going home: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/convicted-tsa-officer-reveals-...

I literally settled yesterday for a far too small amount with Turkish Airlines, because my bag got "lost" four weeks ago (Frankfurt-Istanbul-Singapore).

So .. yeah. I'm convinced it was stolen. And the airlines treat you like crap when that happens, basically shrug and do nothing for a month.

I used to ride Greyhound when I couldn't afford to fly, years ago.

There is no comparison. The bus is worse.

> cattle-car experience of air travel

Being herded in and out of a Greyhound at 3 AM by a pissed off driver is literally a cattle-car experience, and happens often.

I've only encountered smiling faces and helpful attitudes from flight attendants and pilots.

It's night and day.

I was also a frequent Greyhound rider, mostly during and right after college (2000 - 2007 maybe). It was overall an awful experience, and in general took about 3x the time of driving a car. You do end up with about one crazy story per 8 hours travelled though.

Smoke breaks. I think a near majority of Greyhound riders smoke. And dang, Germans and French smoke way more than Americans - it's almost like they don't know or care that it'll kill you, and make you cough badly enough it sounds like you're dying. Somehow I kinda doubt it'll be any faster on a FlixBus.

Flixbus coaches do not do smoke breaks.

Well then it has the potential to be a buttton faster than Greyhound.